Cable TV hearings at City Hall

March 13, 2013 by DickH Posted in Current Events, Lowell 1 Comment

Tonight (March 13) at 6:30 and again on April 10 at 6:30 PM in the City Hall Council Chamber, the city of Lowell will hold public hearings on the state of cable TV service in Lowell. This is a once-every-five-years important opportunity for you to share your views on cable in a way that will have an impact on the city’s negotiation of future service agreements.

Here’s more information about these hearings from the website of Lowell Telecommunications Corporations (LTC):

Information from the hearings directly effects Lowell’s contract with COMCAST cable, and LTCs ability to continue bringing you local coverage of meetings and other important programing in the coming years. We invite you to please join the meetings and tell Lowell what is important to you about LTC’s local cable.

These hearings are also incredibly important for LTC. As you may know, 80% of our funding comes directly from Comcast as part of their contract with the City, called franchise fees, this payment ensures that for use of our land to run cable, Comcast will give us back use of some cable bandwidth for local communications.

I urge you to please JOIN US at one or both of the hearings and tell Comcast what you love about LTC, and what role we have played in your life. Your opinions are an important part of preserving local cable access.

Just a note, some things that cannot be negotiated at the cable hearings include:
• what channels Comcast offers and where they are placed
• asking for other service providers like Verizon
• asking for cheaper rates

But you can advocate for:
• support for LTC via franchise fees and capital payments
• senior citizen discounts
• services/areas to be offered
• more visibility for LTC programming via: listings in the program guides, broadcasting in the HD tier, and space on Comcast Video on Demand

If you cannot make the hearings you can also submit written or email comments or suggestions to Miran Fernandez, MIS, Chief Information Officer, City Hall, 375 Merrimack St., Lowell, MA 01852. Or email:mfernandez@lowellma.gov

One Response to Cable TV hearings at City Hall

  1. kad barma says:

    If we can’t add additional providers, that leaves Comcast with all the cards, doesn’t it.

    “Hearings” on a premise of monopoly are a sham and a joke. Whatever their budget for sopping the monopolized masses might be, I’m sure we can have all the say we want on how that pittance gets doled out.

    Count me out.